Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-05-22
NEW YORK LETTER.
TIE LIGHTS AND SHADES OF LIFE IN
GOTHAM.
a weil-Knovn figure-A Club Man on
Dinners-A Rich Family
Notes.
ICorcapondence Of tho Richmond plrpatch. !

New York, May 81, 1887.
With the death of William 0'Gorman
Hickey one of the unique figures in
New York journalism has disappeared.
To the casual observer he seemed 30 be
q brokon.down old man, one Of those
pathetic wrecks who are left here and
there on the strand of to-day, relics of
the legendary Rohemianism of the past :;
usually they are men who have no real
fitness for journalism, and are TO I've
pitiod because in their old age they
have TO grind away on the routine work
of beginners at beginners wages. Mr..
Hickey was apparently just such man.
But he had has ways that distinguished
him sharply from others of his class.
He was upwards of sixty years old,
short and slight. His head was
scantily covered with white hair, and
he wore a clcsely-cropped white nous.
tache and about an inch of side-whis.
kers in front OF each ear. He was
the associate and subordinate OF men
who might have been his sons or
grandsons, hut he invariably bore him
self in such way that we were led to
believe that he kept the idea OF sub
servience constantly in view. He spoke
In a low, deprecatory tone, took off his
hat when he came into the Office.
turned with the utmost Difference to
those who addressed him. and seldom
began a conversation Of his own ac-
cord. His work took him every day
TO the Tombs police court, and gene
rally also to the Essex Market court,
both of which he reported for the City
Press Association, concern, as may be
generally known. that furnishes ac-
counts of the routine events of the day
TO all the papers by duplicating re-
ports. This work calls for nothing but
the briefeSt relation of the es-
sential facts, and Mr.. Hickey
naturally never INDUCED in the
Misunderstanding and descriptive
writing that distinguish the news
paper Of To-Day from that of genera
ton age. He came qG;i;etly into the Of
fee, wrote his copy without q word 70
anybody, delivered it to the city eli
ter, and went out Immediately. I be-
!:tvG he was ntver known to be behind
time in arriving at court or neglectful
OF his business there or elsewhere
But one of the most interesting features
of his personality was his devotion to
the DEGREES Of fashion. He was APP
psrently too poor 10 buy new suit at
every change OF the season, hut he
nevertheless nromrtly modified his gar9
with the advent Of new styles. he had
light suit for summer and dark one
for winter. His neckwear was always
in the prevailing mode. In the SUN
mCr he wore a tail white hat that was
only too evidently not experiencing its
f1st season, and when one day the |
brokers Of tie stock Exchange abolish !
ed white hats from the door as an hon. |
age to approaching winter Mr.. |
Hickey promptly took the hint |
and appeared in black hat. And yet |
lie could never Tor a moment be mis-
taken for well drcssed man. and |
his scrupulous gentility sometimes |
made the boys smile. But there was |
more in il TO make man sorrowtul |
than jocose, for Mr.. Hickey had been |
wealthy and was a born gentleman. |
His fsther owned an extensive estate
in the south of ireland. The son was
sent to the university and educated for
a lawyer Before he had applied for |
admission to the bar, however, he had |
come to look upon the priesthood as a
calling more fitted to his tastes and in
clinations. and he eventually spent |
considerable time in the study of the |
Ology. He was prevented from con- |
ktt,., .tagTrFc ~, fine rnQftar /
by the failing health OF his father, |
who urged him 10 return to the estate /
and assist in its management. He /
complied, of course, and while his |
father lived they had many arguments !
as to the proper policy to pursue to-
wards their employees. The young man |
insisted that eight hours q day was /
enough for any man to work, and /
the father frowned on such philan-
thropic notions. When the young man
came at last to have charge OF the /
property be proved hiHself to be the |
kindest, most easy-going squire ever
known in the south OF Ireland. I'm
fortunately the result WAS that men /
imposed on him. He was led into
spending much more money for tools
and improvements than was necessary !
and his fortune rapidly sank. 1t Is not
worth while TO attempt to follow him |
in his disastrous course. There was /
some speculation, a good many mort
cages, and the final sale of the whole
estate. Mr. Hickey came to America,
and, already gray, began lite as a re-
porter. 1t is not at all probable that
he Rad any desire TO 90 higher than the
first round of the ladder where he got /
q foothold. Not all educated men can |
succeed in reporting, but it seems as
If Mr.. Hickey might have done
so, for those vino knew him
recognized a quaint hulnor, keen
intelligence, ana sensitive o5serva-
ton. he was undoubtedly content to
work his eight hours day for a mode
rate sum and extract some pleasure or |
satisfaction in life from books. He
never received pennyworth of injury |
from what he drank or smoked. If he |
ever INDUCED in either of these plea
sures il was as the most refined gentle |
man does. lie never married. From |
the independence of n country squire |
with his pack of hounds, his stable and |
bis little r(tinue, to the seven-days-tOil
a-week routine of n police court report
or is long and, it seems TO me, a sad |
step. And il is little less sad to think |
that Mr.. Hickey lost his estate more /
through his kindness and genuine gen
tilty than through improvidence the |
proof OF this hes in the fact that with |
his small salary for reporting he had |
laid by something in savings bank to !
serve him should old age relegate him
to the shelf labelled "Worn out and |
Unpensioned.
A cLUB-MAN on DINNERS.
"What are you thinking about, Chap
pie ?"
The club-mGn to whom this question
was addressed started as though sur
prised at the discovery that he was ca
pable Of sufficient intellectual effort to
tbink. Recovering himself, he replied
81 was thinking what beasHy bad
dinner bad last night"
"WhCre ?"
"At the Martins"
Bradley 2"